Q: My girlfriend and I are moving in together. We both cook a lot and our new kitchen is tiny. We want a great trashcan that can take a lot of use, but that doesn't take up a big footprint in the kitchen.

I'd love it to go against a wall, but she thinks round trashcans are awkward and a waste of space against a wall. Have you seen any great trashcans for cooks?

— Sent by James

Editor: We got hip to the flip-top trash can for the kitchen a while ago; keeps things covered and neat. Ours was round and I agree with your girlfriend, it was awkward. Another drawback was the darn hinge that rubbed a big black mark on the wall.

Enter OXO — they're always solving problems — with their rectangular spring-loaded "touch can," a trash can with a small footprint but a big capacity (10.5 gallons) that fits into the corner or against a wall. The trick here is that the hinging action on the top is on the inside of the can, not the outside. So you can put it anywhere — even flush against a corner — without worrying about how that top is going rub.

It also has these little clips on the inside that keep the bag from falling in, which for me ranks toward the top of the list of kitchen annoyances.

I've been cooking a lot these last weeks, also in a small space, and as odd as it may sound, this trash can has brought me sanity.

Readers, what's your trashcan solution for the kitchen?

• Find it! Here is the older version, still available at Amazon.com ($138.70), and here is the not-yet-released version with the hinge moved to the longer side ($139.99) at Amazon.com.

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Sara Kate is the founding editor of The Kitchn. She co-founded the site in 2005 and has since written three cookbooks. She is most recently the co-author of The Kitchn Cookbook, to be published in October 2014 by Clarkson Potter.